1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein an overhead map resource generation program for generating a resource of an overhead map corresponding to a virtual three-dimensional space, an overhead map resource generation apparatus, a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein an overhead map display program for generating and displaying an overhead map by using the resource, and an overhead map display apparatus, and more particularly, to a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein an overhead map resource generation program for generating a resource of an overhead map based on image data obtained by shooting a virtual three-dimensional space from above and for executing processing for displaying the overhead map, an overhead map resource generation apparatus, a computer-readable storage medium having stored therein an overhead map display program, and an overhead map display apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, there has been known a technique for displaying a virtual three-dimensional space on a display apparatus, and at the same time, displaying a two-dimensional map which is a plain view of the virtual three-dimensional space looked upon from directly above (for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-26129). Such a two-dimensional map is created separately from data for displaying the virtual three-dimensional space and is saved in advance. Alternatively, such a two-dimensional map is created each time by using map data including position data of an object placed in the virtual three-dimensional space, and the like.
However, in an information processing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-26129, in the case where the two-dimensional map is created separately from the data for displaying the virtual three-dimensional space, a work of creating (re-create) the two-dimensional map occurs each time a configuration of the virtual three-dimensional space is changed during development of a game, for example. Therefore, there is room for improvement, that is, it is desired that the work of creating the two-dimensional map is reduced. Moreover, in an information processing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-26129, in the case where the two-dimensional map is created each time by using map data including position data of an object placed in the virtual three-dimensional space, and the like, since it is necessary to store the two-dimensional map corresponding to the whole of the virtual three-dimensional space, the amount of memory needed to store the two-dimensional map increases as the virtual three-dimensional space becomes larger. Therefore, there is room for improvement, that is, it is desired that consumption of memory for storing the two-dimensional map is reduced.